The Promenade Shops' Shula's restaurant is pulling up steaks and moving to downtown Allentown.

Named for Hall-of-Fame Miami Dolphins football coach Don Shula, the white-tablecloth steakhouse plans this summer to open an 8,600-square-foot location in the first floor of Strata Flats, the luxury apartments being built at Seventh and Linden streets by City Center Investment Corp.

It's something that seemed unreachable just a decade ago, said Shula's Steak House local owner Kostas Kalogeropoulos, speaking at a formal announcement Tuesday at the nearby PPL Center arena.

Kalogeropoulos recalled brainstorming ideas to revive the city's floundering downtown business district during the administration of former Mayor Roy Afflerbach, only to see it continue to struggle. Afflerbach was elected in 2001.

"I have two mechanisms of thought, one is my brain and the other is my heart," Kalogeropoulos said. "My brain has let me down many, many, many more times than my heart. My heart led me to come here and participate in something we were trying to accomplish many years ago."

Shula's will close its Center Valley location in May and move all 65 employees to the new Allentown eatery, which will be located where Seventh Street intersects with an extended Allentown Arts Walk, directly across from PPL Center. It will feature outdoor dining and an upscale bar and dining room serving lunch and dinner.

Shula's will add a national name to the mix downtown, and help the developer pitch its 60,000 square feet of available first-floor center city retail space to other potential tenants, City Center CEO J.B. Reilly said.

"It is not every day you get a national chain moving into your downtown that is as good as Shula's," Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski said. "It is definitely not every day they move from the Promenade Shops and open up in downtown Allentown."

Shula's Steak House chain President Dave Shula recalled hearing about Allentown's revitalization efforts on National Public Radio before traveling here earlier this year to meet with local ownership. When he saw the effort for himself, and Kalogeropoulos pitched plans to move the steakhouse downtown, he bit.

"No brainer, let's make it happen," Shula said.

The new steakhouse will be about 1,000 square feet smaller than the Promenade Shops location, Shula said, with less private dining. Reilly offered very competitive rent, but that wasn't the primary consideration in making the move, Kalogeropoulos said. Terms were not disclosed.

It's a reversal for a downtown business district bled dry over the years by suburban malls and office parks.

In relocating, Shula's follows in the shoes of a string of City Center office tenants that have closed locations elsewhere in Pennsylvania to move into Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone, where their state and local non-property taxes can be diverted to finance construction, allowing lower rents.

They include National Penn Bancshares, Buckno-Lisicky & Co. and CrossAmerica Partners, formerly known as Lehigh Gas.

In addition to arena events, Strata Flats' projected 250-plus residents and visitors to PPL Center's soon-to-open Renaissance Hotel are expected to provide customers for the restaurant. The soon-to-be shuttered Center Valley location's dinner menu offers steaks that start at $41 for a New York strip.

Shula said downtown Allentown offers many of the amenities the chain looks for in a location: plenty of nearby Class A office space to drive business lunches, an attraction with events that draw a crowd and a hotel whose guests can afford a nice steak dinner. With developments like Strata, livability is improving, he said.

Kalogeropoulos said he's confident the steakhouse's loyal customers will follow it downtown, and to help entice them it will offer valet parking.

"The people who were coming there [at the Promenade] were coming from New Jersey, the Poconos, Philadelphia, Reading, because there wasn't any product like it," Kalogeropoulos said.

The steakhouse is the latest in a list of new eateries that have opened downtown in and around PPL Center arena, and the first with a national footprint. It joins Hamilton Kitchen, Roar Social House, Chickie's & Pete's, Crust, Tim Horton's, and Tony Luke's among the new arrivals.

Shula's has 14 high-end steakhouse locations, including restaurants in Miami, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis and Times Square. It operates 20 other eateries at various price points, including Shula's 347 Grill, Shula's 2, Steak and Sports, Shula's Bar and Grill at airports, and its newly created fast-casual Shula Burger.

"Welcome to the new normal," said Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. "When did we ever think we'd see the day when a restaurant of this caliber would move from the Promenade Shops to downtown Allentown?"

Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley assistant general manager Melissa Napolitano did not return a call seeking comment late Tuesday afternoon.